Latest Teamwork & Collaboration topics

In today’s collaborative work environment, it’s essential to seamlessly interact with individuals outside your organization. Microsoft 365 offers a way to invite guest users—external individuals—into your tenant to work together within your environment. This capability fosters cooperation with clients, partners, or contractors, but it’s important to manage these external users carefully to ensure they only access what they need.

The SharePoint platform has been evolving rapidly, bringing new features and adjustments that can impact both user experience and governance. While many of these changes offer exciting opportunities, some also introduce challenges. In this session we take a closer look at key updates to SharePoint’s editing experience, offering insights on what works well, and where caution is needed.

In this session, we explore the significant updates to Learning Pathways in version 5 and the changes to the Lookbook. Developed by Julie and Stefan Bauer, Learning Pathways has developed into a great tool for most organizations. With Derek’s help maintaining the code updates, this knowledgeable team has collaborated to bring you the latest improvements in the beta version of v5. If you’re looking for more in-depth assistance with Learning Pathways beyond this 30-minute session, we highly recommend our new 1-hour Jumpstart focused on this tool!

Microsoft has introduced SharePoint Premium, a comprehensive suite of tools designed to enhance content experiences, processes, governance, and backup/archive functionalities. SharePoint Premium aims to elevate content management to a higher maturity level, integrating various advanced tools and capabilities. SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) Located in the SharePoint Admin Center, SharePoint Advanced Management (SAM) offers a range of capabilities, including sophisticated reporting tools and data governance reports. SAM features change history reports that allow administrators to track changes at both site and organizational levels. These reports are downloadable, providing insights into who made specific changes and when.

Crafting a compelling home page on SharePoint is an art and a science, requiring a delicate balance of strategic planning and creative execution. At the heart of it all lies the principle of consistency. Whether the page serves as an intranet hub or a team site, users should encounter a familiar layout and navigation that guides them to their desired content. Rules of thumb Beyond consistency, we recommend placing crucial content in the top left corner. This ensures visibility without requiring excessive scrolling, a nod to the traditional concept of the “fold” borrowed from newspaper design. However, the visual appeal is equally important; the use of color, imagery, and layout can provide powerful cues that guide users through the page and draw their attention to key information.

Within your organization, effective management of the Microsoft 365 site lifecycle is critical. First, you must recognize that not all sites hold equal significance in terms of their lifecycle. While certain sites, such as HR intranet sites, may exist indefinitely, other components, like document libraries or collaboration sites, need lifecycle oversight. With no lifecycle organization, companies often face the issue of sprawl. Understanding site lifecycle Regarding the Maturity Model and site lifecycle, organizations at the 100 level have a ton of sites, many are inactive, and they don’t know how to deal with them. At level 200 you see some manual management, but it’s irregular. Level 300 you might have a clear site request, provisioning, and retirement process. Level 400 brings automated rules and policies to manage the site portfolio. Level 500 likely has an AI or rules-based analysis that’s watching the site portfolio and providing suggestions.

In this Ask Sympraxis session we explore the vast landscape of templates within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Discover how templates serve as essential building blocks for evolving sites over time. A template in the conventional sense may be thought of as a guide. In Microsoft 365, we consider a template something aimed to deliver repeatability, consistency, and encapsulating institutional knowledge. Content types as templates Content types serve as templates for business objects like invoices, contracts, orders, etc. Although Microsoft provides base content types, you can create your own to suit your organizational needs. Building those in the Content Type Hub or SharePoint admin center allows you to reuse them across your tenant.

This Ask Sympraxis session focuses on what we are most thankful for, and that’s community-driven initiatives! These diverse and valuable resources within the Microsoft 365 community are aimed at improving user experiences and optimizing organizational workflows. Microsoft 365 Community Content The Microsoft 365 Community Content project is an open platform where anyone can contribute. It emphasizes practical content designed to help users comprehend and effectively utilize Microsoft 365 tools. Ranging from fundamental guides to advanced articles combining multiple products, the project is a collaborative effort that continues to evolve.

Microsoft Teams is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of its users. In this session of Ask Sympraxis, we dive into several exciting new features and enhancements to boost your Teams experience. While we’ve provided a brief overview of what was covered, for in-depth information on these updates, we encourage you to watch the entire episode. Multi-Account Management The new Microsoft Teams allows you to seamlessly integrate multiple Microsoft accounts into your Teams workspace and quickly switch tenants.

Introduction to Microsoft 365 Groups When discussing Microsoft 365 Groups, we like to tailor our explanations to suit the audience. For example, these groups resemble familiar concepts like Active Directory security groups for IT professionals. In contrast, when addressing end-users, we liken them to distribution lists in Exchange - a unified permission entity providing access across Microsoft 365 apps. In either description, creating a Group not only grants you a SharePoint site but also sets the stage for various integrated services, such as Teams and Planner. Groups gives you a one-stop management for all the integrated apps. Keep in mind however, if you make a permission change at the group level, or at the app level, it goes to all the other apps as well. Groups encompass two permission levels: ‘owner’ which grants full management capabilities including adjusting permissions, while ‘member’ bestows only content control, such as adding, deleting, creating, etc.